Your curious cat questions answered!

I was searching on Google for some cat based topics to research and write about on this website. There is no doubting that I absolutely love finding out new things about our cat Nipper and I just love research in general.

You may have noticed on google that if you start typing a search query it will auto suggest the rest of the question. Just like in the screenshot I took below.

When you start searching cat questions on google it will start suggesting.

This got me thinking! These auto suggest questions must be what other people are searching for. So I have decided that I am going to write this article answering a decent handful of these questions that you are answering. If you have come here from google looking for the answer to a specific cat question, use the table of contents to skip right to it. So without further ado let’s get on with these curious cat questions!

Is a cat a mammal?

Firstly let us look at some of the defining features of animals that are classed as mammals. Mammals will have these features:

Females will produce milk to feed their young.

Mammals are all warm blooded.

All mammals will have hair or fur.

The majority of mammals will give birth to live young.

Mammals are all vertebrates meaning they have a spine.

Cats certainly have all of these features. They give birth to live kittens. Anyone who has a cat that sleeps at the end of their bed will tell you they are warm blooded as they keep their feet warm. Cats are certainly very furry. So we can therefore confirm that cats are mammals of the feline branch.

Are cats carnivores?

To be a carnivore an animal needs to mainly eat a diet of meat. Meat is where they get their energy and nutrition from.

Some carnivores can also eat vegetation although this will make up a really small part of their diet.

Cats are carnivores. They need to eat meat in order to be able to sustain their lives. If a cat does not eat meat in their diet they will eventually die as they cannot get the nutrients that they need. Cats truly are carnivores.

Are cats warm blooded?

This is a much asked question according to the google auto suggest.

I can confirm that cats are warm blooded. As I mentioned in an earlier answer cats are mammals and as such must be warm blooded. You can find this out for yourselves by giving your cat a cuddle.

Does it feel warm? Or how about when it sits down on your lap when you are watching some TV? You should really start to feel the warmth that your pet cat is giving off. This is because of the warm blood that is circulating around their bodies.

Are cats loyal pets?

Cats are a bit different to dogs in expressing their loyalty. A dog is a social animal that will actively seek out its owners affection and attention. Where as a cat can sometimes seem like it is a solitary and lonely animal that wants to spend time away from you. This can sometimes come across as the cat not being loyal.

However this could not be further from the truth. Cats are very loyal and if you look after your cat well it will love you very much. You can tell this by certain acts your cat will do such as kneading. A word of caution though, if a cat is not treat well and then someone else offers it food and warmth it’s loyalties can sway.

Are cats good at catching rats and mice?

Catching mice and rats is second nature to a domestic cat. This is what their bodies are made for, hunting and catching rodents and small birds. They absolutely excel at this sort of prey hunting with their quick and agile skills.

If you own a farm that has crop that is vulnerable to rodent attacks then you may find that a pet cat is the perfect companion. They will keep all the vermin away from your crop supplies.

The same goes for if you live in the city and their is a rat or mouse problem. Your cat will keep them off your land and out of your house. The only problem with cats being such efficient hunters is that they also target wild bird species. This is having a really serious negative effect on our birds in some areas so you should try to discourage that behaviour by placing a bell on your cats collar. This will warn any birds of the danger whilst not effecting your cats ability to hunt rats and mice.

Why do cats like boxes?

Ah this one is a good one. I am sure nearly all cat owners at one time or another have been frantically searching for their cat. Only to find it tucked up tightly inside a small cardboard box!

There is just something about the simple box that is a serious attraction to a cat.

The actual reasons though are due to your cats genes and heritage, they are ancestors of big wild cats. It is in their nature to seek out confined, safe and secure locations to rest. They do this for several reasons but the main ones are to be able to hide from prey while they sleeps. Another reason is that it provides a location for them to be able to secretly observe their own prey.

Your domestic cat may not need to use do this anymore but it is still in their blood and that is why your cat loves to hide and sleep in boxes!

Why do cats like milk so much?

Cats absolutely love milk, the creamier the milk the better as far as your cat is concerned.

This is because your cat realises that milk is what it’s mother provided to it when it was a growing kitten. It knows that it is nutritious and will provide it energy and all the things it needs to function.

However adult cats should not drink milk. Kittens have special enzymes in their stomachs that can break down the lactose in the milk. Unfortunately adult cats do not posses this enzyme and cannot break down the lactose. This can cause major stomach upsets and problems. You should not feed your cat milk from the store no matter how much it try to get it.

Is a cat nocturnal?

Domestic cats are not nocturnal. To be a nocturnal animal the majority of activities need to be done during the nighttime hours.

The domestic cat is actually somewhere in the middle. It is actually active in both day and night in equal amounts although they do tend to be asleep for most of the day and night!

This is known as being crepuscular. Crepuscular means that their is no peak in activity in either day or night but instead an even spread throughout the whole day.

Does a cat know it’s name?

Now this is a curious question! We could never know for sure that a cat knows it’s name after all we do not even know if a cat knows what a name is.

However we can say that cats can associate words such as it’s name with certain things. A cat may hear you say a word which is its name when it is feeding time. It will associate this sound to food and then naturally come to you when you say it. The same applies to other things that may happen when it’s name is called.

So we cannot prove that a cat would know that it is called its name but we can prove that a cat can associate that word/sound with an action.